Pilot Whale, Strait Of Gibraltar

Adult females measure up to 16 feet (4.9 m) and weigh up to 1.5 tons. Life span is about 45 years in males and 60 years in females for both species. Both species live in groups of about 10 to 30 in number on average but some groups may be 100 or more. They are quite active and will frequently lobtail, spyhop and approach boats. Pilot Whales feed predominantly on squid. As compared to their other tooth-whale relatives they have many fewer teeth; numbering only 30 to 40 as compared to 120 in the bottlenosed dolphin. This is thought to be an adaptation to their squid-eating diet.
Pilot Whales are amongst the most common and most widely distributed of the marine mammals in the cetacean order. The Long-finned species prefers slightly cooler waters than the Short-finned and is divided into two populations. The larger group is found in a circumpolar band in the Southern Ocean running from approximately 20° S to 65° S. It may be sighted off the coasts of Chile, Argentina, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. There are estimated to be in excess of 200,000 individuals in this group. The second population is much smaller and inhabits the North Atlantic Ocean, in a band that runs from South Carolina in the United States across to the Azores and Morocco at its southern edge and from Newfoundland to Greenland, Iceland and northern Norway at its northern. It is also present in the western half of the Mediterranean Sea. The Short-finned species is more populous. It is found in temperate and tropical waters of the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Its population overlaps slightly with the Long-finned Species in the western Atlantic. There are 150,000 individuals in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean. There are estimated to be more than 30,000 animals in the western Pacific, off the coast of Japan. Both species prefer deep water.